The development of software is generally done as a series of software builds, also known as development builds, dev builds, or just builds. A build may refer to a process of converting source code files into standalone software artifacts capable of being run by a computer, or the result of such a process. Thus, during the creation of software, developers may create many different builds, such as weekly or even daily builds, before reaching a final product.
As can be appreciated, a single computing machine is often unable to manage and store many builds during the development of software, and arrays and other external storage devices may be utilized. However, although the arrays may provide enough storage for a development environment, conventional systems require the copying and moving around of build data to developers requesting the data. Such moving and copying, often manual processes, may not be feasible for many software development environments, such as software development environments that include many software developers creating and modifying many builds over a network.
There is a need for a system that overcomes the above problems, as well as providing additional benefits.